My Little Pony: A Song of Ice and Fire
by Hawki
Summary: Oneshot: There are some secrets that are never meant to be revealed. Some truths are best left buried under ice and snow.


_A/N_

_So, few points. This started out as a oneshot, then it got so long that I decided to make it a multi-chapter (along with writing extra material that isn't here now). However, I found it can no longer fit into canon. It can't fit the season finale, nor can it fit stuff from the EU. Ergo, back to being a oneshot. And by extension, yes, this obviously breaks canon significantly. Sorry about that._

* * *

**A Song of Ice and Fire**

"Been awhile since we took the balloon out for a spin, eh Spike?"

"Oh, yeah. Definitely."

Twilight turned her gaze away from the lands below and looked at the dragon, currently slumped over the side of the basket that carried them. "Um, Spike? You doing okay?"

The dragon glanced back at her, and Twilight could see immediately that he wasn't.

"Oh yeah. Fine. Totally."

It didn't take much effort for her to realize that it was a lie. And as if the universe decided he needed to be punished for such falsehood, he promptly threw up over the side.

"Ugh…"

Twilight walked over. "Feeling better?"

He threw up some more. From here, Twilight could see the mineral trail fall through the air, heading down to the endless fields of snow below them.

"Better," he said. "I'm just gonna do…stuff." He walked over and slumped against the side of the basket.

"Poor Spike," Twilight said. "Didn't think you could even get air sickness anymore with those on you now." She pointed a hoof at his wings.

"And I didn't think we'd ever need to use this balloon again." He looked up at the device in question – still filled with air, and still carrying them northward. "I mean, you have wings, and I have wings, and…I'm sorry, why are we here again?"

Twilight pointed to the small box tucked away in one of the basket's corners. Not that it was showing it, but it was filled from top to bottom with scrolls, quills, and all manner of geographic instruments. Not to mention some treats under a blanket in the bottom.

"Yeah, okay, but, why us? Like, if you wanted to research this place, couldn't you just send one of your subjects to do it?"

"Oh, I could, but…" She trailed off. Spike had a point, granted, but still…

"Twilight, you're queen now. You tell a pegasus to jump, they ask how high. Ask an earth pony for food, they ask how much. Ask a-"

"I get it Spike, I get it. But, I mean, y'know…" She leant back against the basket and smiled. "You, me, just like old times, right? Discovering stuff about the world, about magic…"

Spike let out a cough, a wisp of green flame appearing.

"See? You're already back into the swing of things." She got back to her hooves and leant back over the basket. "Besides, I can't stay cooped up in Canterlot forever. There's a whole world for me to explore, and-"

"No."

She looked at him. "Pardon?"

"Please Twilight, no more songs. If you start singing, I have to start singing, and…" He let out another cough. "Really not into that right now."

"Aw, come on Spike. It's got a lovely chorus and-"

Spike's cheeks bulged and he got to his feet before throwing up over the side of the balloon again.

"Oh. Fair enough." Twilight looked away and back over the side of the balloon. _Damn. It was such a nice song as well._

Still, as some small consolation, the lands below her were nice, nay, beautiful, as well. Snow, snow, and more snow, as far as the eye could see. Snow on trees, snow on grass, and rivers carrying chunks of ice cutting through the land. Beyond the Crystal Empire, beyond even Yakyakistan, no pony, no-_one_, had ever come this far north. And even if there was nothing here but snow, snow, and more snow, Twilight knew that she coming this far was an accomplishment in of itself. Twilight Sparkle, First of Her Name, Student and Heir of Celestia, bravest explorer since Daring Do, the-

"You're daydreaming again aren't you?"

_Damn it Spike! _She glanced round at her friend, who was now not only looking and sounding much better, but had come over to the edge of the basket to stand beside her.

"Huh," he said. "So, this far north there's snow, and more snow, and ooh, shock of all shocks, snow…"

Twilight frowned. "Well, when you say it like _that_…"  
"How else would I say it?"

The frown deepened. "Weren't you airsick a few seconds ago?"

He shrugged and Twilight groaned.

"Y'know, I still don't get why we're here anyway," Spike said. "I mean, there's nothing this far north except…"

"Snow?" Twilight asked in a deadpan voice.

"Well, yeah. Snow. But ever since the Hearth's Warming Eve Pageant last year, you'd had it in your head that you needed to come here."

Twilight didn't say anything, as her eyes took on a far-away look.

"Twilight, please don't start daydreaming again."

It was too late, as her mind went back to the end of last month, and ipso facto, the end of last year. The first year of her reign over Equestria, and the first Hearth's Warming Eve pageant made in her honour. After her first year in Ponyville, Celestia had entrusted her and her friends with being the lead actresses in the performance. Now, a decade since that had occurred, the pageant had been made in honour of her. A tale of the old world, of the Three Tribes who had come to Equestria, and performed in a manner that celebrated the new. Over a thousand years ago, the earth ponies, pegasai, and unicorns had come together in harmony. Now, as the closing monologue of the play had suggested, with a new queen and a new rule, they'd know doubt know harmony for years to come.

Twilight wasn't sure as to whether it was appropriate to add lines like that, but she couldn't help but blush at the declaration. Nor could she deny how the applause had sounded that night, as the crowd had cheered her as she'd walked onto the stage. And since that night, she'd-

"Twilight!"

She shook her head. "Gah?"

Spike glared at her. "Daydreaming."

"Oh. Sorry." She began cantering around the basket again.

"Go on, say it," Spike said.

"Huh? Say what?"

"Why we're here, and-"

"Oh Spike, this is great! So great!" she said with a giggle. She put her hooves on her friend's shoulders and began shaking them. "I couldn't stop thinking about it after that night. What's this far north? What caused the tribes to head southward? Is there anything left? Could there be any ponies?"

Spike managed to get himself out of the shake, and sighed as the queen cantered around. "And, what? Weeks of planning, just for a sightseeing trip?"

"Not just a sightseeing trip Spike, a field research study. Like we used to do before…" She nodded at her wings. "Well, before these, for starters."

"Ah yeah. The wings. Shame you aren't using them right now."

"Come on Spike, aren't you a little bit curious?" Twilight asked. "I mean, this is the land where ponykind originated. Where my ancestors came from. We've never really understood why they made the trek south to what became Equestria, but-"

"Um, the windigos?"

Twilight stared at him. "What?"

"The windigos," Spike whispered. "Y'know, those blizzard horses that feed on discord, and discontent, and disaster, and lots of other stuff that begins with d?"

"Oh Spike," Twilight laughed. "That's just an old mare's tale."

"But the pageant-"

"Spike, the moral of the pageant is the important thing, not some fantasy about blizzard horses. There's no evidence that windigos exist, or ever existed."

"But wendigos…"

"Yes Spike, _wendigos_ exist, but not _windigos_. They're totally separate creatures." Twilight went back to leaning over the edge of the basket. "Most likely explanation as to why the Three Tribes came south is simply that it got too cold. Earth ponies couldn't farm, unicorns and pegasai got peeved, they came south, and they learnt to work together."

"I dunno Twilight. Remember the story of the Mare in the Moon, and it turned out to be Princess Luna?"

"Yes, as discovered by yours truly," Twilight said, putting a hoof to her chest.

"And when Daring Do turned out to be real?"

"Well, yes, but-"

"And let's not forget-"

"Okay, okay," Twilight said. "So there's a lot of weird stuff in the world. But if the windigos are real, if they create blizzards…" She cast a hoof out to the lands below them. "Where are they now? Where's our blizzard?"

Spike didn't say anything.

"Exactly," Twilight said. "Now then. This should be a good place to do some aerial surveys. After that, we can go down. See how deep the snow is, maybe even ice core samples…"

Spike groaned.

"Glad you're onboard, number one assistant." She put a hoof over her eyes – cold as it was, the sun was still out, and it still had a gleam. Looking down below, she noticed the snow, the river, the castle, the forest, a-

_Wait, what?! _She stared even further into the distance. "Oh my gosh," she whispered. "oh gosh oh gosh oh gosh oh-"

"Um, Twilight?"

"Spike, look!" She plopped the dragon on the edge of the basket and pointed northward with her hoof. "A castle! An actual castle!"

He squinted through the sun's glare. "Doesn't look like a castle to me. Looks like a ruin."

"Oh Spike, you…you…gah!" She used her magic to open the box. "This is incredible Spike, don't you get it? We have actual evidence of prior pony habitation." She levitated some binoculars, and still using the levitation spell, put them to her eyes. Through them, she could make it out in greater detail, and see that it wasn't a ruin at all. If anything, despite the snow that had accumulated on its walls, and the lack of banners, it looked in as much as good a shape as Canterlot Castle itself.

"This is…wow. Just wow." She tugged the balloon's ropes and started taking them in. "This is going to be…squeee!"

"Um, Twilight?"

"Not now Spike." Twilight looked away from the castle and rummaged through the chest again.

"Twilight?"

"Not now Spike!"

"Twilight, I really think you should see this."

"Spike, I've seen the castle, it isn't going anywhere."

"But Twilight, I can't see it anymore."

Twilight scoffed, but nevertheless got back on her hooves and walked over. "Oh Spike, that's ridiculous. The castle can't just…disappear…"

It hadn't disappeared, but that wasn't the issue. What _was _the issue was that it was snowing, and up ahead, was a blizzard. One moment the sky had been clear, the next, a snowstorm had appeared right in front of them. And in doing so, cut off the castle from their view.

"It's the windigos," Spike whispered. He tugged at Twilight's leg. "They're coming for us Twilight!"

"Oh Spike, stop it," Twilight snapped. "There's no such thing as windigos."

"But there wasn't a blizzard before, and now there's-"

"Spike, I've had it with you!" Twilight yelled, as the snow swirled around them. "From the moment we left the Crystal Empire, no, Canterlot, it's just been one thing after another!" He was backing away from her in fear, but while her heart bid her stop, her tongue kept wagging. "Well, you know what? Fine. You've got wings, so use them. I've got my scrolls, my instruments, and yes, wings as well! I'm the queen of Equestria, and you better get used to it and start doing what I say before…before I…"

It wasn't the horror in his eyes that tipped her off. It was the chill in the air around her. A chill that went beyond even the blizzard they were flying into. A chill that came not from coldness of the body, but a chill within the soul. That instinct that existed in every pony that came to the surface when something was wrong. So slowly, so slowly, as slow as a cycle of sun and moon, she turned round…

_Oh sweet Celestia._

…and saw it. A pony like creature with glowing eyes and a body that appeared to be made of the air itself. Icy vapour came out of its nostrils, and even without any wings, it hovered in the air. A windigo. Just exactly as the legends described it. And, more importantly, a windigo that was looking right at her.

"Um, hi," said Twilight raising a hoof. "My name is Twilight Sparkle, and I-"

The windigo roared and Twilight glanced at Spike. "Run!"

Or fly, as the case was. But wings or no wings, they never had a chance for that, as the windigo shot upward, puncturing the balloon. Twilight looked up in a mixture of fascination and horror, as the creature came to a stop above them. Fire burnt on its ethereal body, but none of the body itself was lost. Mist was constantly emenating from it, but it wasn't losing any of its mass. Whatever magic had created the windigos, it was incredibly potent.

That was the fascination. The horror came from what she saw, as the sky darkened, and as the blizzard continued to rage. As the windigo was joined by another. And another. And another, and another, and another, until there were six above them. Staring down at the alicorn and dragon with shining eyes, and frigid breath.

"Not good," Twilight whispered. "Not…"

The balloon plummeted, as gravity finally caught up with the laws of air retention.

"goood!"

The force of the descent pressed both Twilight and Spike against the basket's base. She tried to reach out for him, and he, her, but the force of downward motion was too great.

"Hold on…Twilight…I can…"

"Damn it Spike, stop talking!" she snapped. "You've made things bad enough already!"

_Why'd I say that?_

She had no idea. Given the look in his eyes, he had no idea either.

_Why did I say that?_

She reached out again. Tried to say something. Anything. Anything that was true, at least. Not anything like what she'd just said.

"Spike, I-"

They hit the ground.

* * *

When she woke up, she found herself among the remains of the basket, and the equipment she'd taken with her for her field study. She didn't know how long she'd been there. But as the queen of Equestria sprung to her hooves, shivering in the storm, she quickly deduced that she'd been here far too long – least if she wanted to stay alive that was.

_Worst. Field trip. Ever. _She looked up into the sky, and shivered for reasons other than the cold. For indeed, she was still trapped within the storm. But above it, flying over her like vultures circling a corpse, were the windigos. All six of them, still flying, still circling. The wind carried whispers, and while Twilight understood not the wind's words, she felt the intent. The malice. The contempt. The glee they felt in seeing her freeze to death after-

_Spike!_

She sprung up on all four hooves. Her horn shone with a golden light, but so thick was the snow around her, it barely provided any lumination. She could only see ten feet in front of her, and she spun around in the snow, she could find no sign of her friend.

"Spike? Spike!" She continued to spin round, but there was still no sign of him. And if he'd walked off, there were no signs of any footprints in the snow. Even her own hoofprints were being eroded by the wind.

"Oh Spike…" She bit her lip. What had she done? What had she said? She had no idea what had gotten into her before the balloon had fallen, or when the falling had begun.

"Spike!"

But she had to find him. Had to make it up to him. Had to get out of this blizzard, because her eyes were stinging, her teeth were chattering, and she was beginning to lose feeling in certain parts of her body.

_Okay. Shelter. Shelter first, then Spike. _She continued to look around, circling like the windigos above her. _So…where's shelter?_

Certainly not the basket, she reflected. It might protect her from the snow buffeting her body, but it wouldn't protect her from the chill. She desparately tried to cast a heating spell, but it fizzled out. She looked back up at the windigos. Still circling her. Still whispering in the wind.

_It's you, isn't it? _the former princess of friendship reflected. _You and your magic._

No words, no answer. Only whispers, and quiet laughter.

_Well, I don't care. I've beaten worse than you…with my friends, granted, but…gah! _She tapped her head with her hoof, remembering all the books she'd read on blizzards. _Snow and Survival, Put on Ice, _and her favourite, _So You're Trapped in a Blizzard, Now What? _Different books by different authors, but one common survival tactic they'd stressed was to find a landmark and navigate by it. That, and finding shelter.

_The castle. _That would serve as both, she reflected. But as she spun around, question was, where was it? There was no way to see the sun, the sky, the stars, anything. No sense of north, south, east or west. But she couldn't stay here.

_Gotta go. Gotta move. _She picked a direction, and praying to Celestia and Luna it was correct, she began making her way through the blizzard.

Progress was slow. More than once, she tried to fly, but the wind picked her up and tossed her back to ground. She thought about how Rainbow would have the strength to fly through his hurricane, or Applejack to run through the snow. Even Pinkie's laughter might have helped negate the feeling of cold. But her friends weren't here. Her friends were all over Equestria, and for the sake of "old times," she'd gone this trip alone. Heart pounding, teeth chattering, her legs aching, she glanced back up at the sky. The windigos were still circling her, and even lower than before. Still whispering. Still waiting.

_Think I'm going to just give up, huh? _Twilight thought. She kept her head down, to shield her ears from the creatures above, and her eyes from the snow buffeting her. _Well, you've got another thing com-_

She tripped and fell into the snow. Gritting her teeth for a moment before the chattering started again, she got back up.

_Shelter…find…Spike…I…_

She stumbled back down into the snow, and this time, didn't get up. Desparately, she peered through the gloom, but all she saw was snow, darkness, and more snow. Her horn sparked and fizzled, before the light finally faded.

_Need to…keep…moving…_

Her head fell down on the snow, and she lay there, unmoving. In silence as the wendigos continued to circle her. As the wind laughed, and the ice covered her body.

"I'm sorry Spike," Twilight whispered, in her last moments of consciousness, a tear freezing upon her cheek. "I'm so sorry…"

She closed her eyes, and let the snow and darkness take her.

* * *

"Spike…I'm sorry…I never should have…said…never should have…have…"

"Who's Spike?"

"Gah!"

Twilight sprung up from the bed she was in, and in less than a second, ascertained four things:

1: She was in a bed. How, she didn't know, but she was in a bed.

2: She was aware she was in a bed, so ergo, she was alive. That was neat.

3: A fire was crackling near said bed, so that, plus the bed, might explain point two.

4: She was in a room with nothing but the bed, and the fire, a wooden door, a wooden table, a glass window, and four stone walls.

All of those points were welcome. However, the fact of the matter was that beside the bed, looking at her, was a unicorn. Grey of eye, grey of fur, but white of horn, and covering a lot of his greyness with a blue robe. A unicorn who was staring at her like she might stare at a petri dish.

"Who's Spike?" the unicorn asked.

Twilight just stared at him, before murmuring, "where am I?" She flopped back down on the bed.

"Where are you?" The unicorn chuckled. "Well, I suppose that's a fair question. You're in my castle."

Though still lying down in the bed, Twilight turned her head to look at him. "_Your _castle?"

He nodded.

"Then…how did I get here?" She turned away and looked up at the ceiling. It would be too generous to say that she felt safe, but if nothing else, being in this bed made her feel warm. And after nearly freezing to death, that was what mattered.

"I found you in the blizzard," the unicorn said. "Poor thing – you were nearly dead. Still, nearly dead isn't the same as being dead, so I brought you back here. Heh. Been waiting three days for you to wake up."

"Three days?!" This time, Twilight did spring up.

"Well, three days, two hours, and-"

"No," she whispered. "No. No no no no no!" She tried to get the blankets off her. "I need to go. I need to get back to…"

A magical force plopped her back under the blankets. She looked at the unicorn and saw that his horn was glowing. "_Seriously_?" she asked.

"Look outside the window my dear. You're not going anywhere in this storm."

Twilight glanced at it. The snow was swirling around outside the glass, and buffeting against it with the same amount of force. She looked back at the unicorn. "What about the windigos?"

A darkness flickered in his eyes, but only for a moment. "There were no windigos," he said.

"But I saw them," Twilight protested. "When my balloon crashed, when I went through the snow, they were above me."

"And I don't disbelieve you my dear. I'm just saying that when I found you, the wendigos weren't there."

"When you found me…" Twilight mused. "Did you…was anyone else out there?"

"This your friend? Spike?"

Twilight hesitated before answering – she was alive. She could grant the unicorn this much. But how much she should tell him was another matter. After all her adventures, deception was a mask that many foes of harmony wore.

"Spike is…was, a friend," she said. "He travelled with me."

"And he wasn't with you when you woke up?"

She shook her head.

"A shame – maybe not such a friend then, eh?"

"Or I wasn't," she murmured.

"Pardon?"

"Nothing." Twilight turned over in the bed. "Don't worry about it."

She doubted the unicorn was lying, which meant that either Spike had fled to warmer ground, or that he was still out there. If the former, she saw no reason why he should come back for her, after what she'd said. If the latter…she sniffed, fighting the urge to cry. Spike was a dragon, but there was no way even he could suvive three days in a blizzard. And that was to say nothing of the windigos.

"I know what loss is like," the unicorn said. He levitated a bowel of stew from the table beside the bed. "Anyway, drink this mushroom stew. You'll feel much better."

_I doubt that, _Twilight reflected. Nevertheless, she drank – not feeling better, but certainly feeling warmer. She took one sip after another, the unicorn holding the bowel out for her. By the time it was empty, her belly was full, and her body was warm. Well, warm_er _– she hadn't forgotten about the fire, and it had done its job well.

"Thank you," Twilight said, as the unicorn put the bowel back on the table. "Really. For everything."

The unicorn chuckled. "I don't get many visitors here," he said. "Least I can do for a pony who comes from…I'm sorry, where are you from?"

"From Equestria."

A darkness flickered in the unicorn's eyes, but only for a moment – Twilight thought it was the fire playing tricks. "I see."

She held her hoof out. "But I've been so rude," she said. "We haven't even been introduced properly. I'm Twilight Sparkle. The…" She hesitated, before saying, "the pony you saved."

"Charmed," he said. "Still, it would be ill manners for me to not give my name as well, so ask, and ye shall receive."

_I didn't ask, _Twilight reflected.

"My name…" said the unicorn, pausing for effect, and even tussling his cape, "is Iridium."

Twilight just sat there. Staring.

"Iridium," the unicorn repeated. "Son of Osmium, who was the son of Rhenium."

"Um…yay?" Twilight asked.

"Iridium!" the unicorn yelled. "Did not Princess Platinum…" He trailed off, and Twilight kept staring. "That little brat," he whispered.

"Excuse me?"

Iridium cleared his throat. "Perhaps over a thousand years of history has erased that of your ancestors, Twilight Sparkle, oh alicorn once unicorn. But no matter – you're home. The home of your ancestors. The home of your kin."

"My…what?"

Iridium's eyes twinkled. "I am King Iridium," he said. "I am the last king of the unicorns. I am among those who stayed behind before the Three Tribes fled south to the land that became known as Equestria." He took Twilight's hoof in his and kissed it. "And I welcome you back home."

* * *

As Iridium led Twilight through the halls of his castle, Twilight's mind was racing faster than a pony in the Running of the Leaves.

She cast her mind back to the pageant at last Hearth's Warming Eve, and beyond that to all the books she'd read about the Three Tribes. It was a tale that had become hazy over the last thousand years and more, but there were basic truths there – the unicorns, earth ponies, and pegasai had fled to Equestria after the windigos locked their lands in ice, and the same would have happened to Equestria if the tribes hadn't put aside their differences. For the unicorns, their peacemaker had been Clover the Clever, while the one who'd led them south had been Princess Platinum. History made no mention of her parents, but the tales did repeatedly refer to her as being "the daughter of the unicorn king." And tale or not, unicorns, like all creatures, had to come from somewhere. Princess Platinum had to have had a father by virtue of biology.

But for Iridium to claim himself to be that unicorn in question? That was far grander a claim. Not impossible, granted – Celestia and Luna had each lived well over a thousand years after all – but certainly improbable. So while she nodded politely as Iridium spoke of the glories of the castle, of his father, and his father before him, of the magic used in its construction and how unicorns had mastered magic that had been lost in the journey south, she looked for any possible holes in his story. Looked, and saw none. No gaps. No contradictions. It wasn't until they reached the throne room, as Iridium lounged back on the Horn Throne (named after the wooden horn that jutted from the top of the chair), she finally asked it.

"Okay, let's say I believe you. That I believe all of this. How are you still alive?"

His eyes twinkled. "Magic, of course."

"Magic," she repeated blankly.

And the twinkle faded. "Did you listen to nothing that I said? Of the great feats of magic your ancestors accomplished? Magic built our civilization. Magic has kept me alive for longer than entire empires have lasted."

"But not enough to save yours," Twilight whispered. She looked around the castle's interior. At tapestries of unicorns moving the sun and moon. Of raising the castle. Of pegasai bowing before a king and queen, and earth ponies offering food. She looked back at Iridium. "Not enough to stop the windigos."

He shook his head. "No."

Twilight saw the sorrow in his eyes, as surely as she heard the sorrow in his words. "I'm sorry," she said. She walked up to the throne. "It must have been…" She cleared her throat. "We have tales of what happened. How the windigos locked the land in ice and snow. In Equestria, we call these the Lands of Eternal Winter, where not even the sun at its brightest can thaw the land."

"And quite right," Iridium said. He looked to one of the throne room's windows, the wind still howling outside.

"So it happened then," Twilight said. "The unicorns, earth ponies, and pegasai couldn't get on, and-"

"Couldn't get on?" Iridium whispered. "As opposed to getting on? You think we ever broke bread with those savages any more than we had to?"

Twilight stared at him.

"Is this it?" Iridium snapped. "Are these the stories your kind now tell themselves while you intermingle with your lessers?"

"_Excuse me_?"

He touched Twilight's right wing, and she shivered – his hoof was ice cold. "I know these are magical," he said. "Some great spell you cast on yourself to unlock the gift of flight."

"Well, actually, I-"

"But the south…" He sighed, his anger fading as quickly as it had appeared. "Have they forgotten? The armies of pegasai razing entire villages in their conquests? The earth ponies burning their own in their ignorance when their crops failed?"

Twilight stared at him. The stories and histories both spoke of strife between the Three Tribes, but nothing to the level that Iridium was describing. Arguments, disagreements, certainly, but not this level of savagery.

"The unicorns stood proud," Iridum continued. "A bastion of civilization in a savage world. Before the earth ponies started hording all the food, attempting to starve their foes when they knew they couldn't match our magic. Oh yes, it certainly put the pegasai in place (it's hard to fight on an empty stomach after all), but it doomed all of us. So that when the windigos came, we could do nothing."

"But the windigos fed on hatred and strife," Twilight said. "You…" She trailed off.

_Was it the windigos? _She cast her mind back to the balloon. _Did they make me do that to Spike?_

Possibly. Certainly she could think of no other reason why she'd lashed out. But what came first? The windigos, or the strife?

"…so, yes, the windigos fed on strife and anger," Iridum said, having started speaking while Twilight had drifted off. "But that was always the way of this land. Conflict, strife, and an uneasy peace marked by frequent outbreaks of war." He spat. "Course the cowards fled south, did they not? My own daughter, whose ears were poisoned by honeyed words by Clover the Clever. Clover the Trickster. Clover the Thief!" He let out a sigh. "But that was then. This is now. Now, unicorns hold themselves back."

Twilight cleared her throat. "That's not true," she said.

"Oh? Is it not?"

"Yes. I don't know what tales have reached your ears of Equestria, but we've had a thousand years and more of harmony and friendship. Two of my best friends are unicorns, but earth ponies and pegasai can also make that claim."

Iridium grunted.

"It's true," Twilight said. "Maybe you haven't seen it, locked up in this castle of yours, but it's true. Equestria's a land of peace and harmony. It always has been, and under my rule, it-"

"You rule it?" Iridium leant forward. "You're the queen?"

Twilight, after a moment's hesitation and sub-concious kicking, cleared her throat and said, "I am. Twilight Sparkle. Queen of Equestria, the crown bequeathed to me by Princesses Luna and Celestia."

"Alicorns like yourself?"

"Yes. Why?"

Iridium leant back in his throne. "I know you were a unicorn at heart," he said. "I sensed it the moment I found you in the snow. The spell you cast on yourself changed you appearance, but it hasn't changed your heart, any more than your birthright. And now, providence has aligned so that blood of mine rules an empire." He got to his feet. "You intrigue me, Twilight Sparkle. Your ancestors were among those my daughter led to the south, but I believe providence has smiled on us this day."

"Really?" Twilight murmured, glancing at one of the hall's windows, the storm still raging outside. "Didn't smile on me three days ago."

Iridium chuckled. "I suppose not." He sighed. "Oh you are a delight Twilight Sparkle. My people would love to meet you."

Twilight stared at him. "Your…people?"

"Yes. My people. My subjects. My fellow unicorns." Twilight kept saring and Iridium laughed. "Oh my dear. You didn't think I'd still call myself king without subjects, did you?"

* * *

"The castle was built atop a network of tunnels," Iridium said. "Formed naturally over millennia, and leaving a treasure trove of riches for us to better ourselves and our magic. Earth ponies would offer food, and we'd pay them. Pegasai would take them for their weapons in exchange for their manipulation of the weather." He grunted. "We learnt our lessons soon enough, when such weapons were turned on us. Before the windigos came. Before the snow."

Twilight nodded as Iridium led her down the shafts. A door had opened in the throne room which had led down a stone staircase to the mines. With her right ear, she listened to the king's words, while her left was twitching. Planning her next move.

Iridium was troubled. That, she could say without doubt. But she was torn between his words, and the meaning behind them. If the lands of the Three Tribes were as violent as he claimed, then it recontextualized the old tales to no small amount. Had the truth been forgotten, she wondered, or suppressed? And if word of this came out to her people, what then? Maybe nothing, granted, but for all the magic of friendship, hatred was like a poison. Slights, however old, couldn't always be forgotten. How could Hearth's Warming Eve pageants continue the way they once had?

Or he was lying. Perhaps all of this was a lie. But whatever the case, she continued to nod as the king led her on through the mine shafts, considering what else he'd told her. Unicorns. He still ruled unicorns. Unicorns that had lived in isolation from their kin for over a thousand years. She'd come here to do a survey, and if true, this would be one of the greatest historical finds in the world.

_But why the unicorns? _Twilight wondered, as Iridium led her on. _The Three Tribes found safety in a cave in Equestria, where songs drove the windigos away. Why not the same here?_

She asked Iridium, and the light emanating from his horn dimmed slightly.

"They tried," he murmured. "The ones who remained here, they tried, just like we did. The earth ponies who refused to flee south tried to grow their food, before their bodies fed the soil. The pegasai fought with all their strength, but even steel gives way to snow." He sighed. "Only we survived, Twilight Sparkle. My people, who I have led all these years as your queens did. We fled down into the mines, as I cast an enchantment on the walls above. The windigos never found us, and we waited out the storm. The land is theirs, Twilight Sparkle, but this place is ours."

"And you never thought to leave?" Twilight asked. "Equestria would have welcomed you."

"A place where we're expected to frolick alongside our lesser?" Iridium spat. "I think not."

Twilight frowned. "You know, maybe it's better you never turned up until now."

Iridium glanced at her – Twilight had stopped walking, and so had she. "Do my words hurt you?" he asked.

She said nothing.

"Well?" he asked. "Do they hurt more than the hooves of an earth pony? Do they hurt more than pegasai running steel through you? Do they hurt more than-"

"Okay, okay, I get it," Twilight said.

"Do you?" Iridum whispered.

"I do. But the world's moved on," she said. "The Three Tribes have moved on so far that they don't even see themselves as tribes."

"But they still identify themselves by kin, no?" Iridium asked. "Tell me honestly Twilight Sparkle - if I wasn't a unicorn, and said such things about your own kind, would your anger be higher, or lesser?"

Twilight opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out. Her first instinct was to say "neither," but…was that true, she wondered? She'd been born a unicorn, and while her body had changed, her heart and mind hadn't. She'd grown up reading stories of Star Swirl the Bearded. Had read books on unicorn magic. There was a reason she looked up to ponies like Clover the Clever more than Private Pansy or X.

"I didn't think so," Iridium murmured. "Come. My people want to see you."

Twilight nodded. "And I them."

It wasn't a lie, though she wasn't sure of the motivations. Starlight Glimmer had run her town with an iron hoof, but the people there had been decent – more decent than Starlight had been before she redeemed herself. Maybe she'd have similar luck.

_And maybe you as well, _Twilight reflected. She even gave Iridium a smile. _Most of the villains I've met have been redeemed in the end. And if I can help redeem the likes of Luna and Discord, you'd be a walk in the park._

She kept following Iridium. "How much longer?" she asked.

"Oh, not too long." He nodded to some moss. "Look. Your mushrooms."

Twilight did look, seeing them glowing under a glowing red rock. "I didn't think fungi grew on light," she said.

"They're not. They're growing on magic."

Twilight's eyes sparkled, but Iridium kept walking. Past the mushrooms, and past some cart tracks, not to mention some upturned carts by them. Past the-

"Iridium?" Twilight asked. "What's this?"

"Hmm?" He turned around, and looked at the shackles Twilight was levitating. "Oh. Those were just some shackles we used for the slaves."

"_Slaves_?"

"Oh yes. Earth ponies mostly – we'd find the gems with our magic, they'd dig them out and haul them to the surface. Sometimes we'd use pegasai too, but we had to remove their wings, and without those, those creatures were barely worth the-"

The shackles came flying at him and Iridium ducked.

"You're disgusting," Twilight whispered.

"My dear, you-"

"You call this civilization? Some bastion among savagery?"

"They did the same to us, and worse," Iridium said. "Why shouldn't we do it to them?"

Twilight was trying not to hyperventilate. Trying, and barely succeeding. Her people, her ancestors…they'd done this. They'd done this, and the truth had been lost to history. Perhaps three truths, granted, but…

_I am still a unicorn._

She couldn't deny it. Seeing Iridium, a unicorn rather than an earth pony or pegasus before her…it hurt more. For a moment, she wondered if the Three Tribes had left not only the windigos, but their own people. A chance not only to escape the snow, but to escape all of it. To start again. To live side by side, rather than in shackles.

She didn't know. Iridium could tell her, but he was only one unicorn, out of…

"How many?" Twilight whispered.

"How many what? Slaves?"

"How many…" She cleared her throat. "How many subjects?"

"Oh, two-hundred, three-hundred, give or take."

"Give or take? You don't know?"

He smiled. "Follow me Twilight. You'll be able to meet them and do a count yourself." He continued on down the shaft, leaving Twilight alone in the gloom. Wondering what lay down below. Wondering what, or who, she'd find.

"Are you coming, Queen Twilight?"

"Coming," she said weakly.

_You know, I'm kind of glad you're not here Spike, _Twilight reflected as she followed Iridium down the shaft. _Chances are you hate me enough already, but to see the people I…all ponies…came from? _She shook her head. _Oh Spike, where are you?_

She quickened her pace. First, the unicorns. Then, she'd decide what to do next. She came up close to Iridium and asked how much longer.

"Not much," he whispered. "We're nearly there."

"Uh-huh." Twilight frowned. "There's one thing I don't get though. Your people are down there. Why not in the castle? Even if the windigos are outside, surely that would be better than down here?"

"The windigos can pass through wood, rock, and steel," Iridium intoned. "The castle is not safe."

"But you said the enchantments kept them out."

"They do, but windigos feed on emotions as much as they drive them. Far better for my people to be kept as far away from them as possible."

"And it's just you upstairs then?"

"Oh, at times," he said. "But you can ask them Twilight. We're nearly there." He chuckled. "In fact, we're here already."

As they reached the end of the tunnel, Twilight could see what he meant. It opened up to a huge cavern. Gems, shining weakly, dotted the walls. Very likely a natural formation, though not necessarily the giant pit that loomed before them. She took some steps forward, but Iridium held out a hoof.

"Wait here," he said. "I will address them."

"Address them?"

"The people below," he said. He gave her a wink and walked onward.

_Address them. Right. _Twilight sat down. _Pretty quiet people you've got there._

She watched Iridium walk to the edge of the pit. "My people," he said. "For over a thousand years, have we toiled in the darkness. A thousand years, have we endured the touch of ice and snow. A thousand years, have we waited for a…"

_Wait. _Twilight looked around the cavern. _They've got gems here. But what about food? _

"May I present to you the Queen of Equestria, so journeyed to us from southern lands."

_How did they sustain themselves for so long?_

"May I present, with all my heart, Twilight Sparkle!"

Twilight smiled, as instinct took over. She'd gone to so many of these speeches before, and one thing that had been drilled into her was that she had to smile. But unlike so many of those occasions, this one was genuine. She dashed forward to the edge of the pit, ready to meet her people. Her kin. The last of the Three Tribes. Her own people.

She reached the edge. The smile faded. Her eyes widened in horror. "Iridium," she whispered. "What is this?"

"What is this? Why, these are my people Twilight."

She just stared, feeling ill.

"Go on Twilight, they're waiting."

_Oh sweet Celestia…_

"Twilight? What's wrong?" He put a hoof on her shoulder and she recoiled from his icy touch. Staring at him, instead of the sight below her in the pit.

"Twilight?" Iridium asked, tilting his head to the side. "Is something the matter?"

"Is…is something the…" She started to hyperventilate. Iridium reached out but she let out a yelp and took to the air, her wings carrying her above him. Above the king. Above the pit. Above, most importantly of all, the piles of bones within it.

"Twilight, we've been waiting for you for so long. Can't you see it?"

She dared to look down, her horn providing illumination. Bones. Hundreds and hundreds of bones – enough for between two and three-hundred ponies. Or, more specifically, unicorns. For each skull had a horn, and the skulls were many. The skulls of mares. The skulls of colts. The skulls of fillies.

"Go on Twilight, speak," Iridium said.

She turned back at him, and with the venom of a serpent, hissed, "you're insane."

"Insane?" he asked.

"Your people are dead, Iridium!"

"Dead?" He walked out to the edge of the pit. "What nonsense. They're right there. Why, they're coming to meet her now."

Twilight looked down. _Oh no._

People were coming. Things were coming.

_Please no._

Creatures of mist and ice, of blue and white, of hatred and strife.

_No!_

Windigos. Two of them. Then three. Then four. Rising from the ground. Rising through the bones.

"Iridium?" Twilight looked at the unicorn but he'd turned away from the pit and was walking towards a bright red gem in the wall. "Iridium?! The windigos!"

"No," he whispered. "They can't be here."

Twilight flew down to the ledge above the pit. "Iridium, we have to go."

"We fed ourselves. We saved ourselves."

Twilight rushed over – as insane as Iridium was, he didn't deserve the fate of those in the pit below. But as she approached, she could hear him whispering.

"We were starving…so few of us left, but still too many bellies…the other tribes gone…our own kin fled…so cold, so hungry…and the snow…so much snow…I promised them. Promised I'd save them. Spells, to keep the windigos at bay…so many promises…"

Twilight glanced back at the pit. The windigos were rising.

"Dying one after another…the old, the hale, the young…waiting in the dark, waiting for help…but no good…only I was left…I'd promised to save them, but I couldn't…"

"Iridium, please. We have to go."

The windigos kept rising. The king kept talking. His fur, once grey, was turning to white.

"And I prayed for help…the hunger, the cold, the fear…I just wanted it to stop…and they came…they needed me, you see, for they needed emotions to feed off, and their storm had killed everything left in the land…they told me I would live forever…that my people would live…I would live, and they would live…my fear, my rage, it would feed them, and in turn, they would feed me…feed them all…feeding them for over a thousand years until lands fell into the same discord as ours…"

A chill ran down Twilight's spine. She looked at the windigos, now all six.

"And so it was, and so it is…"

Her eyes widened – as Iridium talked, so did the creatures.

"Oh Twilight…"

She glanced back at Iridium. His fur whiting. His frame fading, revealing not a unicorn of fur and flesh, but bone and mist…

"I knew it when I saw you out there in the snow…when I saw you freezing, lying there, so alone, so cold, so beautiful, like a river of spring cutting through winter's touch…they said that there was no malice in your heart, and I knew then that my daughter's line had continued…so I took you in…three days and three nights at your side, as I saw life return to you…as I fell in love with you…as I knew, at last, what had to be done…"

Twilight knew what had to be done, but her body wasn't responding.

"Oh Twilight Sparkle…"

Not even as Iridium turned to face her. Staring at her through eyes glowing with a blue light.

"…will you be my queen?"

The former princess of friendship let out a shriek, and ran for her life.

* * *

_Get out get out get out get out!_

No more clever plans passed through Twilight's head. No reflections on history, or culture, or any of that. She was in the presence of monsters, and right now, all that mattered was getting out of this castle alive.

She hadn't looked back as she'd run up the shaft, and nor did she look back once she emerged in the throne room. What she did do was cast a glance out one of the windows – there was still a blizzard outside. If she left the castle now, if she didn't freeze to death, chances were that she'd still starve. Which, she realized, heart still pounding, was a better fate than whatever Iridium had planned.

She ran for the giant oak doors – locked.

She ran to a door on the upper landing – locked.

She ran to the door where Iridium had first led her into this room – locked.

_Come on come on come on! _She tugged at the handle, but it wouldn't budge. She teleported back down to the centre of the throne room. _Gotta be a way. There's always a way._

"_Twilight…"_

Her heart froze, and the ice spread to her soul.

"_What's wrong, Twilight?"_

Iridium's voice. She could hear it, but could not find its source. She looked at the tapestries, the walls, the windows – it was like the castle itself was speaking to her.

"_Would you like more soup Twilight?"_

"Shut up," she whispered. She ran up to one of the windows and fired a bolt of magic at it.

"_Won't work, Twilight…"_

The bolt rebounded off the glass. She let out a yelp as she ducked, the magic impacting harmlessly on the walls.

"_You can't go outside Twilight. There's a storm."_

_Yeah? Watch me. _She looked outside and began a teleportation spell. In flash of light, she disappeared…

…and reappeared back in the centre of the throne room.

_No._

She tried again. And again. And again. Always appearing back in the same place. Always, with each flash of light, her heart skipping a beat. Always more sweat on her mane. Always, after each failed attempt, quiet laughter filling the room.

"_The enchantments kept them out once," _Iridium whispered, after Twilight made her fifth attempt. _"Now they keep you in."_

Twilight began twirling around. Was it just her, or was the throne room getting colder?

"_Twilight…enough games, Twilight…"_

She let out a yell and began pounding on the doors. Screaming. Begging for help. Someone. Anyone.

"_Not out that way Twilight…"_

She turned around and her mouth dropped. The tapestries. They were changing. Earth ponies, unicorns, and pegasai alike...their hair turning to bone, their heads turning to skulls. And above them all, in each tapestry, a pair of circling windigoes. The true rullers of the land now. Windigos just like the six that were slowly rising through the floor, their ethereal forms passing through stone, and wood, and time.

"Stay back," Twilight whispered. "Stay back!"

And before them all, the seventh. Iridium. Smaller than the rest, but the most terrifying. Because there was the faintest outline of his physical form, behind the mist, and the ice, and the blue fire of his mane. All that, beyond the crown of gold he wore with spikes of bone.

"Stay back," Iridium whispered. "I said that once. When I was afraid." He cantered over to Twilight, but to her gratitude, he came to a halt between her and the windigoes. "But I'm not afraid anymore Twilight. You're safe. You're home."

"This isn't my home," she whispered.

"It is the land of your ancestors. The land of your blood." He extended a hoof. "Join me, oh queen. Join me, so that we may sing songs of winter as we sit by fire. As we forge a new legacy for all."

"For all?" she whispered. She looked up at the windigoes – all six of them, hovering in the air, looking at the ponies below through eyes of frost and fury. "You mean, for them?"

"They are mine, Twilight. They serve me."

"No," she whispered. "You serve them." She cast her mind back to his words - _my fear, my rage, it would feed them, and in turn, they would feed me_. "Don't you understand? They're using you!"

Iridium fell silent. For a moment, the light in his eyes dimmed – so much so that Twilight could see a pair of eyes behind them. Eyes of a unicorn. Eyes that were in fear.

"No."

But with his words, the light returned, and all trace of his physical form was removed as well. Twilight looked on in horror as his entire body became ethereal. In all but size, Iridium didn't look like a windigo – he _was _a windigo.

"You will be my queen, and together, we shall rule," Iridium whispered. "My people have fed on scraps, on the magic of earth, sky, and magic alike, but for over a thousand years, peace has been maintained in lands to the south. They have been kept out, and even in recent years, you've always restored harmony." He began walking towards Twilight, and when he spoke, it wasn't just in his voice. "You will be queen. Iridium will be king. You will return, and sit upon Two-horned Thrones. And with you, the winds of winter will come."

"No," Twilight said. "Never." She stood up straight, and with a breath, began to speak. "I'll die before I ever let you do that."

Iridium stopped walking, and when he spoke, this time, it was in his own words. "If that is your wish…" He looked back at the windigoes. "Kill her."

The windigoe howeled, and shot down like a storm of arrows. Ready to consume the being of flesh, fear, and warmth before them. The being who looked up at them. At their shining blue eyes, before her own eyes sparkled as well. Before her horn glowed, and let out a stream of fire at them, cutting through air as a knife might through butter. Red flame, cast from a crude spell. But fire that did its work. So well in fact, that some of the tapestries caught aflame.

The windigoes screeched and recoiled. Through the flame, Twilight could see some of their bodies be consumed by it – mist caught in the flame, before disappearing because of the heat. Apparently, the windigoes could be harmed. Maybe, with enough fire…

"That's it?" Iridium asked, and breathing heavily, Twilight looked at him. "A crude spell from an abomination who's forgotten her own birthright."

The windigoes shot down again, this time not in a line, but from all directions. Gritting her teeth, Twilight let out one fireball after another. Enough to keep them at bay. Enough to give them pause. But they were six, and she was one, and she knew this couldn't last.

"You delay the inevitable," Iridium whispered.

Twilight kept fighting. Kept casting balls of flame.

"Equestria is built on a lie," Iridium continued. "Three Tribes, three friendships, conveniently forgetting the hatred that once divided them."

The fire continued, even as exhaustion began to dim Twilight's fury. The ceiling above the throne room was pounding, as if the world itself had turned on the castle.

"Even if you lived, what then? For all your magic, you are still mortal. One day, you will leave this world, and your crown will pass to another. And another. One after another, tarnishing the gold with each passing of the torch. All in the knowledge that you're better than them. Queen. Magician. Scholar."

The roof kept pounding, and Twilight staggered back. Her lungs were screaming. Her horn was bright red. The wind was howling, and the windigoes above her were whispering. Just as they had in the snow. Only it was even harder to hear them now, as the pounding on the roof still continued.

"Let me save you," Iridium whispered. He walked over, right in front of Twilight. "From king to queen, from unicorn to alicorn, let me save you. Let me save all our people." He held out a hoof…and Twilight spat at him.

His eyes blazed, as he recoiled. The windigoes howled. They dove in for the kill.

_Spike…I'm so sorry…_

And the roof collapsed as a ball of green flame came crashing through it. The windigoes howled, five of them evading the fire, while the sixth was caught within it. The windigo in question screeched. It screamed. It flew back and forth as the green flame consumed it. But while Twilight beheld the sight for a moment, her eyes remained focused on what had come crashing through the roof. Snow fell from above, but she felt no chill, as green fire consumed the object's body. At least for a time, before it faded, revealing it to be a dragon.

"Spike?!"

A small, purple dragon. One who, upon her exclamation, turned to look at her through blazing eyes.

"A dragon?!" Iridium exclaimed. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw him back away, and the remaining five windigoes follow him above. "Spike is a dragon?!"

Twilight barely heard him. She was too busy looking at Spike. At his eyes.

"Oh Spike…" She held out a hoof, but he slapped it away with his claws. She winced as blood began to spill out, but it wasn't from that – it was the look in his eyes.

"A dragon," Iridium laughed. "A creature of fire, already taken by ice!"

Twilight could see it. The windigoes fed off hatred, and likewise produced it. And right now, Spike hated her. Question was, how much was that down to her friend, and how much of it was down to the creatures above?

"Spike, I'm so sorry…" Twilight said.

The dragon hissed at her.

"Come on, Twilight," Iridium said. "Ice is a better path than fire."

"No."

"No?"

"No," she said, not taking her eyes off Spike. Gingerly, she extended another hoof to his cheek. He growled, he hissed, but this time, didn't swipe. "I'd rather end in fire than let you to this to me. To my people." She looked past him, and the windigoes. "To what you've done to my friend."

_Hatred in every heart. Only use what's there._

But how much hatred, she wondered? She looked at her friend again. Her oldest friend. Her dearest friend. The friend who'd always been there for her and now, in the end of all things, here beside her now. Here, looking at her through eyes afire, albeit dimming.

"Twilight?" he whispered.

_Ice, fire, song is sung. Fire first, then ice. Fire drew the ice, and ice took the fire of this land._

"I'm here, Spike," Twilight whispered. "I'll always be here."

He looked at her...as the fire returned to his eyes. The hatred as well. The burning desire to do harm. A desire that made Twilight want to flee, but she kept herself in place. Better fire than ice, she told herself. Better to meet her end at Spike's claws than the hooves of the windigos. Of the hooves of Iridum. She saw him open his mouth, ready to breathe flame.

"Get down," he whispered.

She obeyed, and Spike turned, a jet of green flame emanating from his mouth. It missed Iridium, but it hit the throne. Twilight stared, the fire of the melting throne dancing in her eyes. She looked on in wonder, while Iridium looked on in horror, as his legacy, his throne, was consumed.

"Kill them," he whispered. He looked up at the windigos, still hovering there. "Kill them!"

The windigos swept down, but after one last glance at Spike, after silent thanks, Twilight let out bolts of magic at them. Not enough to do them harm, but enough to keep them at bay. She watched as Spike kept billowing fire, the flame consuming the tapetries. The wood. And as fire took the whole throne room, the castle itself.

"Kill them!"

The windigos howled. Snow poured in from above, but it turned into mist as it hit the ground. So too did the windigos as they tried to attack Spike. Casting one spell after another, Twilight kept them at bay, long enough for Spike to turn his flame onto them. Flame that had turned from green, to red. Once, ice had come to dampen the fires of this land, Twilight reflected. Now, fire was fighting back.

"You traitor!"

So was Iridium. Spike was burning his castle, his legacy, his 'subjects,' but it was Twilight that he slammed into. Twilight who he pressed against the wall and lifted her up, choking her with both his hooves.

"You did this…" Iridium whispered.

Twilight, gasping for breath, pushed off the wall with her hooves, and using her wings, slammed Iridium into a wall on the other side. Spike was fighting the windigos. Twilight was fighting their master.

"You did this," she repeated. "Not me."

Iridium teleported, making them both appear in the air, then using a momentum spell, slammed Twilight against the upper walkway, even as Spike's fire consumed all sections of it. "You came back! You, who carry the blood of traitors! You, who turned your back on us, and broke bread with lesser creatures! You, who left us to die!"

Twilight tried to speak, but Iridium began choking her. Not just with his hooves, but with his magic. A tightness formed around her throat that she knew wasn't just down to brute strength. Desparately, she fired a beam of light at the mad-mule above her, but it passed right through him.

"Why?"

She could barely hear him, and not just because of the sound of ice above the castle, and fire within it.

"Why?" Iridium whispered.

She looked at him – even as her vision faded, she could see it. His old form appearing again, beneath the frost and flame.

"Why didn't you come back?" Iridium whispered. "Why did you leave us to die?"

"We…didn't…"

She couldn't speak – the answer was not hers to give. She wasn't her ancestors. She wasn't Princess Platinum, or Clover the Clever, or even Iridium himself. What she was, was the queen of Equestria, and the former princess of friendship. She, who had never relied on brute force to solve a problem before. Somewhere, beneath the hate, beneath the rage, was Iridium. The unicorn who had generated those emotions in the first place, granted, but who had been consumed by them as well.

His old form was fading. His windigo form was returning. And Twilight, still struggling to breathe, cast her last spell. Two waves of light emanated from her horn and grabbed the mist – a spell designed to interact not with matter, but with energy. It grabbed the flame, and pulled. Pulled, even as the fires raged. Pulled, as Iridium yelled. Pulled, as Spike incinerated the last remaining windigos. Pulled, until Iridium's physical form let go of her throat, and his spell was broken as well. Pulled, until at last, Twilight beheld an ethereal creature she was holding in the air above her – screeching. Yelling. Yearning for release. Yearning for a new host, as Iridium collapsed.

"Spike!" Twilight yelled. She got to her hooves and looked down at the lower level. Spike was there. Barely standing, but still aware.

"Now!"

He let loose a jet of flame against the creature. Before, it was screeching. Now, it screamed. A scream that cut through Twilight's body like a shard of ice being drilled into her. The windows of the throne room shattered. The snow falling from above swirled around it, as if it was trying to save itself from the flame. It screamed, it raged, but Spike kept blasting it with fire, as Twilight used her magic to hold it in place. So as the fire ate away at its mist, its form, it looked at Twilight. Glared at her with eyes of ice, and the hatred of over a thousand years.

Iridium had said there was no malice in her heart. But tightening her grip on its form, as the fire burnt away the rest of the creature…it felt good. Less good however, as she ended the spell, breathing heavily, as she saw Spike look up at her and collapse.

"Spike!" She sprung up with her wings…

"Twilight?"

…and looked at Iridium. Still lying on the walkway. He reached out to her. "Please, help me…"

She frowned, not sure what to do. But as a scaffold collapsed, she found that she had little choice. She let out a yelp and flew clear, while it smashed through the walkway, taking wood and Iridium's body with it onto the ground below. She frowned, looking at the debris of wood and stone, of the fire that was consuming both. Of the fire that was consuming everything. Then, she flew down to her friend.

"Spike? Spike!" She grabbed him by the shoulders, but it was no good – he'd passed out. He'd defeated the windigos, but only by giving it his all.

_Oh Spike. _Twilight put her hooves around him. _You brave, brave little dragon. _She began pulling him away from the fire, and looked around desparately. Iridium's enchantments might still be up. If she couldn't teleport out, if she couldn't go through the doors, she was trapped. _Or I can just go through there. _Twilight looked up at the hole Spike had made – a hole much larger than it had been a few minutes ago, as the fire consumed it. Above it, she could see that the storm was still raging. But between freezing to death or burning to death, right now, she favoured the former. So, with her hooves still around Spike, she readied her wings and-

"Twilight?"

She slowly lowered Spike to the ground and looked around, her eyes widening. There. Under the debris. Iridium. His hair turning white. Parts of his body melting away to reveal the bone underneath. His crown broken and on the floor, out of reach. He reached out to her, and on instinct, she rushed over to him. The reminder that this was a tyrant, a traitor, and a monster, was one that came to her only after she'd arrived in front of him.

"It's gone," Iridium whispered. "It's finally gone. Gone, so I can at last see clearly again."

Twilight looked at him with pity in her eyes – Iridium was dying. He'd meant to die over a thousand years ago, and without the windigos to sustain him, without him to sustain _them_, the circle was broken. Time had at last caught up to the unicorn king. And even if she could get the debris off him, she wasn't certain she could reverse the spell.

"Twilight…"

"I don't know if I can save you," she whispered. She glanced at the fire. At the burning tapestries. Cast her mind back to what she'd seen below. "I don't know if I _should _save you."

Iridium laughed, fleks of blood leaving his mouth. "You already saved me Twilight."

Part of the ceiling collapsed, and to her horror, it only just missed Spike, still unconscious. She readied herself to run over to him, but Iridium's whispers caused her to turn her head back to him. To see his eyes, dark brown, meet hers. To see him smile.

"I can see her in you," he whispered. "Platinum…dear Platinum…I can see her Twilight, as clearly as I see you before me. Platinum…Clover…so much of them both, in you." He reached out a hoof, and gingerly, Twilight took it. To offer what comfort she could in his last moments. To see the tears in Iridium's eyes, as he spoke his last words.

"I'm sorry…I'm so sorry…I'm sorry for everything…" He coughed more, each breath of his more ragged than the last, as fire and time consumed his flesh. "I'm sorry for what I did. And I'm sorry that your ancestors could not create a better world. You, your ancestors, the ones who left…you were the best of us…the visionaries…the ones who created something magical…" He coughed again, before whispering, "make a better world Twilght. For every pony. For every_one_. Don't let what happened to us happen to you." He looked at her. At the snow, the frost, the flame. "Be better than us. Be…what I never could."

Iridium, son of Osmium, son of Rhenium, and father of Platinum, the last of those who stayed behind, breathed his last. And in spite of everything, Twilight felt humbled. Long enough to stand there for a moment, before whispering, "I will."

_Move._

More of the ceiling collapsed. The fire spread. Ice had once taken everything in this land, and now, the turn had come for fire.

_Move!_

The circle was complete. The song was ending.

_Move, now!_

She sprinted over to Spike and grabbed him. She looked up at the ceiling. At the fire. The frost. The snow.

_Now fly. Fly!_

Her words, or the words of Iridium, she could not say. Perhaps they were the words of her people. Of those who had come before. Either way, she spread her wings, and shot up into the sky. Buffetted by the snow and the chill, as the castle collapsed below her.

_Fly. Fly!_

She kept flying, with Spike in her arms. Flying. Still flying. Flying with speed and strength she didn't know she had. Flying, until at last, she burst through the rim of the storm, and out to lands under the light of the sun.

_So the sun's still rising. That's good._

She flew down to the snow and touched down gently. Just as gently, she laid the dragon down.

"Spike?" she whispered. "Spike?!"

He made no movement, nor sound.

"Spike?" She began to shake him. "Please, Spike, come on!"

Still, he made no movement.

"Spike!" she yelled, as she continued to shake him. "Please…no. Not you. Not now. Not like this!"

He slowly opened an eye. "Twilight?"

Something was in Twilight's eye as well.

"What happened?" He looked around. "Where are we?"

Twilight chuckled, before rubbing her nose against his. "Somewhere safe, Spike." She flopped down in the snow and just lay there, under the light of the sun. Basking in its warmth. "Somewhere safe."

* * *

She sat there, ashen faced, looking at the remains of the castle. The storm had cleared, the sun was still high in the sky, and she could behold Spike's handiwork. A smouldering ruin that she doubted would have anything left but its foundations within a year. That it was still standing at all had been a miracle, nay, curse. Spike's fire hadn't destroyed it, she told herself. He had set the avalanche in motion, but the avalanche's name was time.

"So, like, there it was," Spike said. He was walking around, making little footprints in the snow, while Twilight just sat there, staring at the last trace of her ancestors. "Flew through the storm, found the castle. Heard whispers, only there was no way in. So, tried making an entrance through the roof. Bit hard, but hey, that fireball trick? Been working on it for awhile now. Wish I could have tried it out in less weird…" He stopped pacing. Stopped talking for that matter, and Twilight looked at him.

"And it's weird," he said, his voice lower. "Soon as I got in, soon as I saw you…it was like, I felt glad, but then everything turned weird. Like, I wanted to hurt the windigos, but it was also like I wanted to hurt you, and-"

"They're gone," Twilight butted in. "The windigos. Iridium. All of them."

"Like the people below the castle?" Spike whispered.

Twilight lowered her head. "Them too," she intoned.

She'd told Spike the basics of what Iridium had told her – as much as she could bear. Every word had been like acid on her tongue, and every admission a dagger through her heart. Spike had saved her, and deserved to know the truth. But what the truth would mean for her people? Her subjects? Certainly it might mean different Hearth's Warming Eve pageants.

"Well," Spike said. "Bet we'll have a story for when we get back, eh? When we tell-"

"No," Twilight said.

"No?"

"No," she said. She sat down in the snow, her eyes back on the castle. "No-one can know about this Spike. No-one."

Spike sat beside her His hands were on his knees, and his fingers tapped their legs. "Twilight, what that guy said…you do know that…"

"That what?" she whispered. "That our ancestors killed each other? Enslaved each other? That I'm…I'm descended from them?"

"And if you are?" Spike asked.

"I'm a unicorn, Spike," Twilight said. He opened his mouth to speak, but with a flap of her wings, she sent snow on his face. "I know, I know, I've got these, but still, I was born a unicorn. And all my life, I thought that…well, that I…" She shook her head. "Well, I-"

"Twilight…"

"I can't get it out of my head," she said. "What Iridium said. What he showed me."

"Twilight, do you think Iridium might have been lying?" Spike asked. "Everything he said was from how he saw the world, and he saw it in the same way the windigos did before his end. You think he was fully on the level?"

Twilight remained silent. It was possible, she reflected. But the most effective lies were ones that had a grain of truth at their core. And given what she'd seen below…no, she reflected. There was far more than a grain of truth in there. A lot more.

_It was a lie, _she reflected. _Intentional or not, we've been lying to ourselves for over a thousand years. _She lowered her gaze.

"You can't get it out of your head, can you?" Spike asked.

She shook her head, and stopped when he hit it.

"Ow!"

"Then try harder," Spike said.

"Spike, in the space of a few hours, I learnt that-"

"What? Some bad unicorns did bad things? That earth ponies and pesagai did them too? Well then, so what? Equestria exists. You rule Equestria. You've ruled it so well that the windigos haven't been able to do anything to it. You want to be proud of something? Be proud of that. And if you want to be proud of your ancestors, look at the ones who left that stuff behind."

"Spike…"

"Twilight, you've never treated me any different as a dragon for what other dragons did. Why should I treat you differently?"

Twilight didn't answer. Hearing those words, hearing the warmth behind them…what could she say?

"Anyway," Spike said. "I'll let you think about it. But I figure we should start heading south now. Figure we can make it into yak territory by the end of the day…"

"Spike."

"…course there's your balloon. Yeah, couldn't save that I'm afraid. But I…"

"Spike!"

He turned and looked at her.

"Why'd you come back?" Twilight whispered. "After the balloon, the things I said…what were you doing over those three days?"

"Oh. That." Spike blushed, and rubbed his foot in the snow. "It's, er, nothing."

"Come on Spike, I told you my secrets. You can tell me mine. After the windigos attacked, after I…said the things I did…what then?"

Spike sighed. "I ran," he said. "We crashed, I woke up, I saw you, I saw the windigos, and I ran."

He looked at Twilight, as if expecting her to give a recrimination. She provided none.

"I ran, and I ran, and I ran." He sighed. "Even then, part of me knew that what you said was more down to the windigos than anything else, but the other part…well, the other part kept me walking in one direction, before I turned round and headed in the other. Till I found the balloon, and you not in it."

"And you stayed alive for three days?" Twilight asked.

"Well, you were kind enough to leave your tools with you," said Spike. "And, er, the treats underneath them."

The food – Twilight felt like hitting herself. She'd forgotten all about that.

"Funny how long cupcakes can last," Spike continued. "But the other stuff, when I saw them…the fire rubies…" He blushed. "I know it sounds stupid, but that's when I remembered – we're friends, right? And you wouldn't have packed those in for me if that friendship didn't mean anything." He sighed. "Wasn't easy, I tell you, making those rubies last, but I managed it. Took forever in the blizzard, had to keep making fires to stay warm and use the basket as a shelter, but, I managed it."

Twilight giggled. "You did." She put a hoof on his shoulder. "And I'll never forget it."

"Ah, geez…" He looked south. "Anyway, enough mushy stuff. Long walk ahead of us, now that the balloon's busted. Or we could fly, I suppose."

"Either's good for me," said Twilight. She began walking. "Come on."

Spike didn't follow, and she looked round. "Er, I said come on."

He didn't say anything, and she saw what he was looking at. A scar on her hoof. Where he'd drawn blood back in the castle. Where the wound had healed, but the scarred tissue hadn't. And he must have recognised it, because he looked up and said, "Twilight? Did I hurt you?"

Twilight walked over and put a leg around Spike, along with a wing. "Spike, there is nothing you could do to hurt me." She broke the embrace and gave him a kiss on the forehead. "Nothing."

She didn't see his smile as she turned back round. "Now let's go," she said. "Sun's shining, snow's gleaming, and I'm just dying for some Yakyakistan cuisine." She began trotting off and Spike followed.

"Um, Twilight?" he asked, trying to keep up. "That song you were going to sing when we first arrived here? The one I stopped you from singing?"

"Um, yes?"

"Just thinking it's a long road ahead of us, so…I mean, if you want to sing it now…might make the trip go faster…"

Twilight laughed, as she continued to run. "Sure thing best assistant. Sure thing." She galloped some more before she and her friend took to the air. Flying south, away from the darkness of the north, under the light of the risen sun.

Flying, as a song of ice and fire carried them on their way.


End file.
